


Inequity

by nickofhearts



Series: A Study in Perspective [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Betrayal, M/M, POV Second Person, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-28
Updated: 2017-01-28
Packaged: 2018-09-20 11:06:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9488378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nickofhearts/pseuds/nickofhearts
Summary: You look at him and wonder, what is the value of integrity?





	

Years later, at the end of everything, he will ask—"did you ever love me?"

"Yes," you tell him, as much as you have ever loved anything. He's your perfect creation, the shining piece on a chessboard of shadows and dreams that you bent and twisted beneath your hands, and you wanted _so_ badly to see what it would take to make it all crack apart.

You kiss sunlight off his lips, and the problem with happiness is that it is a bright fluttering thing that beats in your chest, but you cannot contain or _keep_ it.

You look at him and wonder, what is the value of integrity? 

He holds your hand over his heart, and he tells you of the monsters he holds within him, of the screams that keep him up at night. He says that you make them quiet.

 _Oh,_ you think, _of course._

He doesn't see the betrayal coming, even though he should. You watch them tear him apart, their shining saviour, signing away their own salvation. By the time you're done with him, he'll be able to see _everything._

The satisfaction isn't being crowned the King of Light, it's what your reward cost him.

You touch the Crystal and magic spills into you like a river, an endless sea of _possibility._

When you see him again, he's changed. No sunlight dare touch him now, dark shadows wreathing his face like brushstrokes on a painting yet incomplete. You want to see it consume him entirely, you want to see what he _becomes._

You think, _how beautiful he will be._

You fight, and he's stronger, anger and retribution burning against the darkness that cloaks him like the kind of lover you never were, clinging to his skin. He holds you in the circle of his arms as your blood pools on the ground, red like his will never be again. 

"Ardyn," you say, reaching up one last time, and you whisper in his ear, _"I'm not sorry."_

-

The second time his sword tears through you, pain like the sweetest lover's embrace, you're laughing. You're unsure whether it's his doing or your own, but the game hasn't ended, and you want your laughter ringing in his ears, the sound of your voice his only beacon in the darkness.

"Remember me fondly," you tell him, trailing blood over his face with your fingers.

-

"How shall it be this time," you ask when he finds you again. You hold your hands out, tilting your head curiously as you watch him. "Perhaps you'd like to burn me alive, hold me beneath the waves until I drown—"

You're not expecting him to kiss you, crushing you against the kitchen counter where you'd been cutting meat for dinner.

It's as good as it always was, and you wrap your legs around his waist, kissing back with a fervor that's even better for how long it's been since you've had this, had him in your arms, your _favourite_ plaything. You let him rip your jeans off, press into you without any kind of preparation. You adore this new side of him, this uncaringness that sharpens the edges of him like a picture gaining clarity.

He doesn't let you come, hands clasped tight around your neck as darkness seeps in, slow as the tide washing up on shore.

You can't get enough air to laugh, but you both already know the sound of it intimately.

-

Another lifetime, and more, and he's waiting for you at the end of each one like your own personal messenger of vengeance, handing out the justice he believes you so richly deserve. 

You ask, "how many will it take to satisfy you?" the next time he's fucking you up against a wall, your hands pinned by knives.

"When you're _dead,_ " he answers, smile as sharp as bone.


End file.
